The story of the Montclair and Greenwood Lake Railroad began
when the Newark and Bloomfield Railroad was completed to Bloomfield in December
1855 and to West Bloomfield (this is the southern portion of present day
Montclair) in 1856. Commuters living in what would eventually become the
northern section of Montclair and the town of Upper Montclair, eyed the line
and suggested that it be extended to them. But the Newark and Bloomfield was in
no position to offer anyone expanded service. Its entire passenger business,
consisting of one coach and one locomotive, earned the handsome sum of $300 in
the first six months of operation.

At the same time, the partners of
Cooper & Hewitt were experiencing their own transportation problems. They
had purchased the ironworks and mines in Ringwood but did not have a
satisfactory route to bring iron out of the Ramapo Mountains. They planned a
railroad from Ringwood to Pompton (this is present day Pompton Lakes) where ore
or pig iron could be transferred to canal boats.

Although this railroad was not
built, the Morris Canal's Pompton Feeder Canal was upgraded. After a long wagon
trip south from Ringwood, ore and pig iron were transferred to canal boats for
transport to Cooper-Hewitt's Trenton Ironworks.

Still without a railroad in 1868,
West Bloomfield broke away from Bloomfield, incorporated itself as the town of
Montclair, and started its own railroad. The Montclair Railroad reached south
and eastward to a connection with the Erie and shared trackage to Jersey City.
Despite their close proximity in the town of Montclair, the Newark and
Bloomfield Railroad and the Montclair Railroad were not physically connected
until more than a century later when both lines were united under the ownership
of New Jersey Transit.

Construction contracts were signed
with the New York, Oswego and Midland Railroad.As part of the agreement they also leased the Montclair
Railroad so that they would operate the completed line.

It soon was obvious that the
Montclair Railroad was not a strictly a local line constructed to give the town
of Montclair its own railroad. It was part of a grand scheme to have a line
from Jersey City, through Montclair, to the eastern shore of Greenwood Lake,
from thence into the heart of New York State and finally to the lake port of
Oswego, New York.

It was good plan on paper with
only two problems. First, while the lake could easily be reached from the south
via the Wanaque River, a prohibitively expensive tunnel would be required to
reach it from the north.

Second, funding was insufficient
to build the Montclair Railroad.

Fortunately, acquiring Cornelius Wortendyke's New
Jersey WesternRailroad would
solve both problems. The New York, Oswego and MidlandRailroad bought it, renamed it the New Jersey Midland Railroad,
andused it to reach Oswego. The
final route ran into western New Jersey and avoided the need for both the
tunnel and the Montclair Railroad.

Although still owned by New York Oswego and Midland, the
Montclair Railroad was now no longer part of its grand schemes and so was built
directly northwards in the Wanaque River valley to the rich iron mines ofRingwood and the popular excursion
destination of Greenwood Lake.

THE HEWITT AND ERIE YEARS

The Panic of 1873 sent the
railroad into bankruptcy. What was the Montclair Railroad went in an 1875
Sheriff's sale to Abram S. Hewitt and Marcus L. Ward. The line was renamed the
Montclair and Greenwood Lake Railroad.Until 1878 it would be in receivership, undergo an humiliating series of
reorganizations, have its steamboats on Greenwood Lake seized by the Orange
County Sheriff, close a branch line, endure accusations of missing funds, and
finally emerge firmly in the control of Hewitt.

The Hewitt era lasted from 1878 to 1898. During the summer
of 1878 the railroad was undergoing another of its periodic
reorganization.Hewitt arranged
that a number of bondholders would sell their securities to the Erie.This guaranteed that the Erie would
control the Montclair and Greenwood Lake whatever the outcome of the
reorganization.

While Hewitt was in control of the
railroad, in 1882 the first steps to an eventual merger were made. The
Montclair and Greenwood Lake began using Erie's engine facilities as well as
its Hudson River terminal although the line did not officially became part of
the Erie until Hewitt sold it in 1898. Hewitt had bought the railroad to keep
iron ore flowing south from the Ringwood Mines. By the mid-1890's the nearby
iron furnaces had ceased operations and unrefined ore for the more distant
furnaces could not be transported with reasonable freight rates.

Shortly after the sale however, rising iron prices soon
allowed the mines to reopen and they were not closed again until 1931. Over the
next thirty years, several unsuccessful attempts were made restart iron mining
in Ringwood until the mines were closed permanently in 1961.

The railroad had two suburban
branch lines, one to the Oranges and Llewellyn Park, the other to Cedar Grove
and Essex Fells.

The Caldwell Branch was built between 1890 and 1892. The New
York Suburban Land Company teamed up with the First Presbyterian Church of
Caldwell to charter and finance the Caldwell Railroad. The railroad's purpose
was to promote development in Caldwell and Essex Fells. It was taken over by
the Montclair and Greenwood Lake in 1893, and in turn the NY&GL was taken
over by the Erie in 1898. In 1904 the Morristown and Erie established a
connection at Essex Fells. Trains could run all the way from Morristown to
Jersey City. There was also once a branch (actually more of a long siding) off
the Caldwell Branch to the site of the dam for construction of the Cedar Grove
Reservoir, long since removed, but still visible. Connecting passenger service
to the Morristown and Erie RR in Essex Fells stopped in 1928, and commuter
traffic stopped in 1966, but freight service lasted until 1976 with the
establishment of Conrail.

The Orange Branch ran from West
Orange station (Llewellyn) to the Forrest Hill station on the "main
line" of the NY&GL. Constructed in1868, it saw it's last commuter
train in 1955. The Orange Branch was home to some very large and well-known
industries. Some of the more notable ones were General Electric, Westinghouse,
General Motors, Canada Dry, Tiffany & Co., and Thomas A. Edison. Today, the
remaining trackage is operated by New Jersey Transit as an extension of the
Newark Subway, and sees occasional local switching to the Hartz plant by
Norfolk Southern.

After being sold to the Erie, the
railroad became the railroad's Greenwood Lake Branch, and at least on the
northern end, its story is one of gradually shrinking trackage and reduced
service. Greenwood Lake became accessible by car, and the last train to the
lake ran in 1935. After the 1920's, the iron mines went through cycles of
abandonment and rebuilding. This reduced the importance of the Ringwood Branch
and the construction of the Wanaque Reservoir insured no other industries would
arise to take the place of the iron mines.

There was however for many years a
reliable and busy commuter traffic between Jersey City, the branch lines,
Montclair, and Midvale.The runs
north of Mountain View were losing money in the early to mid 1950šs and
permission to abandon this service was sought.

Years later with the creation of
the Erie Lackawanna in 1960, the Greenwood Lake Branch became the eastern part
of the Boonton Line at the crossing of the old Lackawanna line in Mountain
View, when through service on the Boonton Line was abandoned through Paterson.

With a yard to handle the commuter
traffic, Wanaque/Midvale became the northern terminus until 1966, when service
was terminated by the Erie Lackawanna.In 1982, Conrail operated the last freight trains north of Mountain View.

Today the Susquehanna operates
some trackage near Riverdale and there are hopes that the Mountain
View-Riverdale section will be reopened by New Jersey Transit. New Jersey
Transit has completed a connection in 2003 between the ex-Lackawanna Montclair
Branch and the NY&GL in Montclair, so that electrified trains can run from
Great Notch all the way to Penn Station, New York. East of Montclair however,
the commuter line has been closed and all Hoboken bound trains travel via
Newark.

CHRONOLOGY

1868 to 1875 THE MONTCLAIR
RAILROAD

1868 - Montclair founded.Fund raising for railroad begins.

1869 - "Midland Sharpers" deprive Caldwell of its
own railroad

1868 - 1869 Work begins on Caldwell tunnel.

September 1870 - Railroad mortgaged to Abram S. Hewitt and
Marcus L.

Ward.

January 1872 - First passenger train from Midvale to Mountain
View.

January 1872 - Work begins on the Hudson Connecting Railroad

November 1872 - Service established between Jersey City,
Montclair, and

Midvale.

March 1873 - Watching station opened, this was one of the
oldest on the railroad.

July 1873 - Through service established between Oswego and
New York City via the New Jersey Midland, not the Montclair.

July 1874 - Disruption of service on the Hudson Connecting.

1875 to 1878 THE MONTCLAIR
& GREENWOOD LAKE RAILROAD

September 1875 - In the first of two foreclosure sales,
Hewitt and Ward buy the railroad of $200,000.Cyrus Field assumes presidency.

July 1876 - Track completed all the way to Greenwood Lake.
Watchung Railroad (later the Orange Branch opens)

August 1877 - Service temporarily halted on Orange
Branch.Collusion with the
Lackawanna suspected.

Fall 1877 - Garrett Hobart appointed receiver.

1878 to 1898 THE NEW YORK
& GREENWOOD LAKE RAILROAD

Fall 1878 - Hewitt was instrumental in arranging that in the
railroad's second bankruptcy sale, the Erie would acquire a controlling
interest.

1879 - Capital improvements started.These would eventually include
re-laying track with steel rails, replacing thousands of ties, and rebuilding
bridges.

1883- High point of vacation traffic, especially to Greenwood
Lake, 51% of revenues come from passenger traffic

1885 - First time the railroad earns a profit.

1889 - George Inness's painting, Short Cut to Watchung
Station earns a medal at the Paris Exposition Universelle.

1890 - 1892 Caldwell
Branch constructed.

May 1897 - Double track completed to Little Falls.

1898 - Hewitt sells remaining interest in the railroad to the
Erie.

1998 to 1976 THE GREENWOOD
LAKE BRANCH

1904 - Caldwell Branch reaches the Morristown & Erie at
Essex Fells

1912 - Dinkie Line narrow gauge tramway to the Ringwood mines
closed.

Standard gauge tracks to
the mines are laid.

1914 - All stations on the line photographed.These pictures eventually reprinted the
book, The Next Station Will Be...

September 2002 - Electrified service from Great Notch to
Manhattan opened.

October 2002 - Swing bridge over the Hackensack abandoned in
the open

position.

2002 to 2004 - East Coast Greenway Coalition proposes using
the roadbed between Secaucus and Kearny as a hiking trail.Another trail proposed to run parallel
to the tracks between Mountain View and Riverdale.

SELECTED INTERNET RESOURCES

For information about the Erie Railroad's ownership of the
line, maps,timetables and
photographs: